If you’re here in the USA, looking for another idea for a Cuban Thanksgiving dish (or if you’re simply curious about Cuban food), I’ve dug up a fascinating sandwich recipe. Made on Cuban bread or white bread, the infamous “Elena Ruz,” includes cream cheese, strawberry jam, and sliced turkey breast. Weird, right?

Yet… somehow, that sweet jam reminds me of cranberry sauce and … well … it is just crazy enough – it might work!

Here’s Wikepedia’s notes on the Elena Ruz:

Another sandwich of Cuba is the “Elena Ruz”. Elena Ruz was a young society debutante in 1930’s who would stop at El Carmelo, a popular restaurant and confectionary shop in Havana after an evening at the opera or a social function, and would ask the waiter if he would fix her a sandwich to her orders. It is prepared on white or Cuban bread, with a layer of cream cheese on one slice, a layer of strawberry jam or preserves on the other, and thin slices of turkey breast in between

Intriguing.

If all that’s too much, and you’d rather have basic Cuban lunch fare – make yourself a heaping plate of rice and beans. You can’t go wrong with rice and beans.

Have a great weekend!

Turret of the Castillo del Morro on Havana Harbor